In the current economic climate, in which the realities of budget cuts are hitting us in the face and university graduates are being greeted with slim pickings on the employment front, we might turn to our parents' generation and ask, why?

The response has come recently in a stream of articles written by those of the baby-boom generation itself, both defending and apologising for the lifestyle that has contributed to the problems we are facing today.

Perhaps simultaneous defence and apology is exactly the appropriate response, as when we now look back and compare cause and effect, we are left with something of a mixed bag.

Unhampered by the drudgery of wartime and all the economising that went along with it, the somewhat harshly dubbed “selfish generation” was born into a world of previously unknown freedoms, and they made it their business to make the most of it. Free education, defined benefit pensions and lowered taxes were all enjoyed, while those claustrophobic of the regulated banking system sought, in the spirit of revolution, to dismantle it. Writers of the baby-boom generation have themselves admitted the destructiveness of this, and acknowledged its contribution to the credit crisis we’ve been facing for the past few years.

“While we now face financial issues 'given' to us by the generation before us, we've also inherited a fairer, more tolerant society."

For those of us concerned about the state of the environment, we can again turn to the baby boomers to place blame. It's a contradictory notion: the generation emblematic of the “hippy” lifestyle, a revolutionary, nature-loving, anti-consumerist movement of a generation, being the very one to develop the habits of consumerism that have enveloped our society and led to incomprehensible wastage and pollution. It's a telling sign that the Zogby International poll found that 42%  of respondents considered consumerism to be the main legacy of the baby-boom generation, above ending a war and  changing cultural values. Such self-indulgence and “instinctual”  spending is, according to some, the reason for our own generation’s tendency to fall into enormous debt. While I personally feel that it’s a bit rich to criticise our parents for our own bad habits, it is important nonetheless to acknowledge what might have been the root of our current way of life.

Then again, it’s also important to acknowledge the movements of the baby-boom generation that have transformed our world for the better. Our parents’ generation shifted society in the most important of ways: by changing mindsets. This revolution, the one which influenced and changed ideas about women, the LGBT community and ethnic minorities, is invaluable. Yes, we still have a way to go concerning all these issues, but this gift of greater tolerance is something we should be grateful for.

A closer look at where the responsibility for our financial trouble lies could also be useful for those looking to judge. Could we honestly say that, had we been in the same situation and been offered unsustainably low taxes, that we would have had the foresight to be concerned for future generations? David Willetts, author of The Pinch, maintains that it wasn’t baby-boomers intentionally paying less into the system than they would later take out in health and pension costs, but that the politicians of the time used the promises of low taxes and fat pensions in order to win votes.

A legacy of a generation is something so complex that it could never be all good. While we now face financial issues that have been ‘‘given”  to us by the generation before us, we’ve also inherited a fairer, more tolerant society, hard earned by those who shunned apathy for something better. Rather than judging the baby-boomers so harshly, perhaps we could learn from their mistakes and be inspired by their successes. After all, they are a living example of how social change can be achieved through action and protest, particularly relevant to us now at a time when students are having to choose between quietly accepting the proposed fee hikes and standing up for a fair education system.